Weekend reads: New Jersey diner serves local food, a huge beer festival and more

Food news and items of interest from around the Web for your weekend reading.

It’s Friday afternoon, and that means it’s time for me to give you a little weekend reading from around the web. Here are a few food related items that I thought might interest you.

New Jersey diners may be famous for many reasons, but serving local foods isn’t one of them. There’s one diner that hopes to change that. South Jersey’s Vincentown Diner got a write up in The New York Times this week. I just may have to pay the diner a visit and give you my own review soon.

WHEN the readers of Edible Jersey magazine gave the owners of a South Jersey diner a Local Hero Award, I added the restaurant to my list of places to try. But when friends came back from a visit there, excited about the everyday use of local products, I called for reservations.

Of course they don’t take reservations at Vincentown Diner: It’s a real diner. In typical diner fashion, they seat you fast, serve you faster and get you out the door — a little too full, chilled by the blasting air-conditioning and slightly dizzy from the experience. But it’s the updated attitude on the plates that makes it a destination.

Fortune has a piece about a grocery co-op in New York that is blowing away regular supermarkets in terms of profitability.

It turns out that one of the most successful grocers around by some measures isn't really in it for the money.

The Park Slope Food Coop (PSFC), the largest consumer-owned single-store coop by sales in the U.S., had $39.4 million in sales during its last fiscal year, raking in more than $6,500 per square foot annually. "Anyone would salivate at that," says Ann Herpel, a general coordinator at PSFC. In our recent story on Trader Joe's we noted that the successful Monrovia, Calif.-based chain outdoes it competition with an average of $1,750 in sales per square foot, more than double those of Whole Foods (WFMI, Fortune 500).

The Great American Beer Festival is happening this weekend in Colorado. Craft brewers from all over the country will have samples of their beers and enter them into a competition. If you’re a beer lover and live near Colorado, this is the place to be this weekend.

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Ever wonder why beef raised locally costs so much more than the beef in your grocery store? MNN’s Morieka Johnson answers that question and lets us know why it’s worth spending more on your beef.